I have been Pastor of the same church for 17 years and I have met a lot of people, and usually, when they hear about my shop they are interested to see it. One of the families in the church was over for Burgers one night, and they wanted to see the shop. After a tour of the shop they told me that their Mother had just changed out all of her kitchen cabinets and if I wanted the old ones for the shop I was welcome to them. So, I was blessed again with some throw away cabinets. All of my cabinets except my miter saw bench were discarded:

This will be my sharpening center and storage for sharpening related items.

And this is going to be used for finishes and things I don’t use all that often.

Now, with all of this storage, I am going to have a fun time remembering where I put everything.

I am going to have to figure out a good labeling system or I will spend what little shop time I get looking for things.

Thanks for looking,John

-- John -- Racine, WI -- Woodworking..."It's not just a Hobby, it's an Adventure"

11 replies so far

John, you have got to be the most organized shop on this site with that set up!!!! Always put things back exactly where you found them and you’ll not need labels. A better suggestion might be this: Every Saturday night when you rehearse your sermon do it in the shop, 1st week keep all the top drawers open as you rehearse and look down on your tools as if they were the congregation. 2nd week second drawer, and on and on and on…:)

Sometimes I wonder why anyone would even bother building cabinets from scratch (for a shop), considering how easy it is to find those older cabinets that people get rid of when remodeling their bathrooms and kitchens. Sometimes I see them at garage sales, second-hand stores. Might even be worth it to call local contractors and let them know what you’re looking for (one less thing for them to get rid of).

I do 3-4 kitchens a year and one problem with reusing old cabs is that they are typically demolished instead of disassembled. There’s a significant cost difference between demolition (3-4 hours) and disassembly (most of a day). Most homeowners go for the least cost.

Very nice and organized, too clean for me, LOL. Building shop cabinets is one of the best ways to try new techniques, I have made many mistakes with cheap wood for the shop to avoid making them on the food stuff. Repetition will help you to find everything and labeled drawers are definatley a good way to go. The tools and supplies I use all the time I know where everyone is, the other stuff, sometimes is a task to find. I have good long term memory, so I can tell you where something is I put away a year ago, but ask me where I put something yesterday and we could be hunting all day for it :)

-- Martin ....always count the number of fingers you have before, and after using the saw.